Parent socio-demographic characteristics

The socio-demographic background of the study child constitutes key aspects to

observe and analyse, in the context of the child’s lifelong development, in a

longitudinal multi-cohort study. Capturing aspects such as ethnicity, parental

education, religion, citizenship and capabilities in English allow for insightful

investigations of differences across groups that feed into important policies designed

to work towards equality. It is crucial to have this information included as these

characteristics comprise the key aspects that are used when analysing differences

between groups with the same cohort and often comparing those results to the same

results from an earlier birth cohort.

The main sub-topics/measures that could be continued from Cohort 24 at age 9

months are (a) an item asking about the family’s ethnicity/background; (b) a question

asking about the family’s religion; (c) questions related to parental education and

highest qualification levels; (d) items on which is the main language spoken in the

home, the parent’s English fluency and the parent’s literacy; and (e) items asking

about the parent’s citizenship and country of birth as well as their time spent in other

countries prior to living in Ireland.

Where the primary caregiver remains the same between 9 months and 3 years, much

of the above information could be fed-forward to save time. The item on parent’s

citizenship, and a related item on the child’s citizenship, could be repeated only

where the response was something other than Irish at Wave 1.

If needed, these questions could be asked as part of the individual parent main

questionnaires.

Recommendations for Cohort 24 at age 3:

•Repeat the 2022 Census question on ethnic group/background from Cohort 24 at age 9 months for new respondents (else forward-feed from Wave 1)

•Repeat individual item on religion from Cohort 24 at age 9 months for new respondents (else forward-feed from Wave 1)

•Repeat items on parental education and highest level of qualifications from Cohort 24 at age 9 months; this could be forward-fed but with an option for the parent to update the information if they have attained a new qualification since Wave 1

•Repeat items on main language spoken in the home, whether English is parent’s first language and the parent’ s literacy from Cohort 24 at age 9 months - for new respondents (else forward-feed from Wave 1)

•Repeat items on the parent’s citizenship and country of birth and questions on any time spent in other countries prior to Ireland from Cohort 24 at age 9 months - for new respondents or citizenship other than Ireland (else forwardfeed from Wave 1); similar for child citizenship

Parent contact with Criminal Justice System